Before I revisit reading as a hobby...

Hi, I've got two laptops both running Linux Mint and a raspberry pi with Openelec and Raspbian. All wired connections. I'm using the most recent OS' all around. Linux Mint 18.2. Latest Raspbian and OpenElec updates installed via Noobs. I've got a Netgear Nighthawk D7000 (latest firmware as of this date). So needed because my ISP is running VDSL and the ONLY router I could find that supports it is the Netgear Nighthawk D7000. I've had my ISP tech out to my home and on the phone trying to troubleshoot the fact that I simply cannot maintain a connection (40 MBS). I've had free and paid consults with Netgear attempting to resolve the problems. I've stopped keeping track of the number of times I've had to reset my router due to lost connections. There are so many potential break points for this: hardware/software. I can't even begin to start figuring out where to go from here in troubleshooting this. Could hacking be a problem? Malware? These days reading about all the hacking that's going on it's hard not to wonder if this is a hardware problem or a malware problem. How much protection is the best hardware against determined malware? Please help. I didn't find the right solution from the Internet. References:- https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1401123 [url=https://jobs.vidzzy.com/hire-product-video-production-agency/]Product Video Production Agency[/url] Thanks!